My Boyfriends parents and my parents met last night for dinner at his house- he made Philly cheese steak sandwiches for the adults and salmon for the kids- all three kids wanted salmon lol. It went great ! Parents really clicked and his parents really liked me. What a great weekend!

Oooo meet the parents! Glad to hear it went well!

This weekend we were out at the in laws all weekend. My MIL watched the baby on Friday, so husband and I went to dinner and a movie! We went to a brewpub and I had a beer brat with fries and husband had pulled pork with sweet potato fries. Three pints of beer in between us. It was a great time!

Saturday night at the in laws we had a big family dinner with the extended group and there were burgers, Italian sausages, spinach salad, pasta salad, pita chips with hummus and tortilla chips with salsa. Many bottles of wine and a fair share of beer all around. It was a good visit.

Tonight we're having salisbury steaks with a few of the leftover burgers that my MIL sent home with us and some egg noodles. Quick and easy since it's already fairly late and we need to unpack and put away all the groceries that are covering our dining table after stock up shopping.

I've got my 'feed the freezer' mindset going right now with baby coming in April. I am trying to double a few dinners a week to get things in the freezer rather than have a cooking marathon that wears me out.

Tonight I'm doing sloppy joes using 2 lbs of beef. I add onion, celery, and shredded carrot to get some veggies in there. We'll have green beans and I don't know what on the side.

Tomorrow I'll use some of the leftover meat to make a dozen sloppy corn bread muffins for the freezer. These are a great thing for DH to grab to take to work if there isn't anything for his lunch. The rest of the meat will go in the freezer- should be plenty for another meal for us.

Tomorrow's dinner will be cheesy beans and rice with tortilla chips and fruit.

Been super busy w/outdoor projects this last week. Getting garden planted and stuff like that. Also about to start an earthbag storm shelter/Hobbit house/root cellar project. Got a huge hole and corresponding pile of dirt in the front and the kids have had a blast, lol.

I made a Fusion Soup that I made up last week. It had 25 ingredients and was soooooo good. Started out to cook sweet potato black bean quesadillas and it morphed into an African peanut stew, and then into this fusion of Asian/Moroccan/Tex-Mex/African soup and it was delicious. At least I remembered to write down the ingredients! The next night I roasted a chicken and potatoes/carrots/onions. The next night I made a chicken soup w/butternut squash, onion, celery, spinach, kale, zucchini, and carrots. Made some rice noodles I had hanging around for the kids to put in their bowls. Very good soup.

Tonight I'm ordering burgers, lol. I'm celebrating having to send back some new jeans because they are HUGE! Woohooo. I'm gonna take off the top bun, but darnit, I want a burger!

Been super busy w/outdoor projects this last week. Getting garden planted and stuff like that. Also about to start an earthbag storm shelter/Hobbit house/root cellar project. Got a huge hole and corresponding pile of dirt in the front and the kids have had a blast, lol.

I'm so jealous that you're planting the garden already! We had a freak 60 degree day today and it has been wanting it to be spring so badly! I'm going to start my earliest seeds this weekend after I get my new grow lights.

Tonight husband brought out the grill even though the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it was raining by dinner time. He made barbecued chicken and roasted potatoes. It was so great! With a couple of Dortmunders again tonight (which is springtime in a bottle) we had ourselves fooled pretty well that winter is over.

Well, today is March 1 and it is currently 80.5 degrees F and predicted to go up another 3.5 degrees. Somewhere on here last year I posted a pic of our outdoor thermometer. It was on the NORTH side of the house, *in the shade* and read 114 or 116, I can't remember. I do NOT wish for another summer as bad as last year's. I do, however, expect to see way more drought (actually, I think that will never go away since the huge aquifer under us is being depleted at alarming rates), but hopefully not as hot for as long! That lovely early planting doesn't matter if it's so scorching that your garden refuses to grow. Last year we had NO garden. Nothing at all grew, and it was so sad. I'm determined to get what I can early this year. We need to move this to the digging in the earth area, lol. ;o) I've seen ya over there. Although, actually, this can be classified as meal planning since we depend on our garden so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kitchensqueen

I'm so jealous that you're planting the garden already! We had a freak 60 degree day today and it has been wanting it to be spring so badly! I'm going to start my earliest seeds this weekend after I get my new grow lights.

Tonight husband brought out the grill even though the temperature dropped 15 degrees and it was raining by dinner time. He made barbecued chicken and roasted potatoes. It was so great! With a couple of Dortmunders again tonight (which is springtime in a bottle) we had ourselves fooled pretty well that winter is over.

Well, today is March 1 and it is currently 80.5 degrees F and predicted to go up another 3.5 degrees. Somewhere on here last year I posted a pic of our outdoor thermometer. It was on the NORTH side of the house, *in the shade* and read 114 or 116, I can't remember. I do NOT wish for another summer as bad as last year's. I do, however, expect to see way more drought (actually, I think that will never go away since the huge aquifer under us is being depleted at alarming rates), but hopefully not as hot for as long! That lovely early planting doesn't matter if it's so scorching that your garden refuses to grow. Last year we had NO garden. Nothing at all grew, and it was so sad. I'm determined to get what I can early this year. We need to move this to the digging in the earth area, lol. ;o) I've seen ya over there. Although, actually, this can be classified as meal planning since we depend on our garden so.

I think it counts as meal planning, but yep, I'm over in Digging in the Earth a fair bit too. :-) Farmers Almanac is predicting a drier than usual season up here this year, so that could mean trouble for the dinner table this summer!

Tonight we're doing a freezer meal - some of the mediocre white chicken chili from awhile back. We're going to add some leftover pasta shells from yesterday's lunch to stretch it a bit to dinner sized portions since we only have one small container of it. And I've got a batch of beer bread in the oven too - since my loaf pans died last week I've had to bake them up in the mini loaf pans, so hopefully they turn out okay on a smaller scale.

Last night we had a sort of Tex-Mex stew I guess I'd call it. It had pork loin in small cubes, 2 quarts pinto beans I had canned previously, 3 zucchini, onions, garlic,3 bell peppers, 1 green cabbage, a jar of mild salsa, corriander, cumin, cinnamon, salt, cayenne, and oregano. Served it w/shredded cheddar, sour cream, and cilantro. Oh yeah, and I added a quart jar of corn my sister had canned. It was very good. I don't usually add corn to anything since it's a grain, but it was pretty tasty!

I have to bake 8,000,000 cookies tomorrow for an 80th bday party on Sunday. I'll make the doughs today. We already have snickerdoodle dough made. I will make peanut butter dough, and I'm not sure what else. Maybe crispy oatmeal. Then again, those are too much like snickerdoodles. Hmmm. Suggestions? Easy cookies, definitely not too involved since I have to make so many. I'll make a triple batch of dough for each kind... Also have to finish making "80"s in different sizes for the kids to decorate.

Tonight will be leftovers for sure.

Oh, and out of each meal I make for us, I've been hired to put helpings back for a very busy mama friend. I'm now a personal chef, lol. Sorta.

Today: I'm throwing some chicken breast tenders in the CP with bbq sauce. Kids will have bbq chicken, baked sweet potato "fries", broccoli and strawberries. Dh will make a CAT sandwich, I will just top my chicken with tomato and avocado, baked potatoes and broccoli.

Tonight will be the cheesy beans and rice I had planned for Thursday. I had it all made up in the casserole dish in the fridge so all I had to do was put it in the oven, and DH came home with pizza. I was all for the pizza. Last night DS was at a birthday party, and the rest of us ate oatmeal and whatever after grocery shopping.

The store had boneless pork loins on sale for 1.79/lb this week. I bought 2. The first I had sliced into chops, which is what I usually do and the only way I buy pork chops. The second one I left whole. I want to make pulled pork BBQ for sandwiches. Will this work for that? Ususally I use a shoulder or something with more fat, but this was such a good price. What if I cook it in the crock pot with veggies and taters and we eat it as a roast one night, then turn it into BBQ? Should work, right? It weighs 4 or 5 lbs.

Really I would love some beef, but even ground chuck from the grocery is staying around $3/lb these days. It just doesn't seem like a good deal when I can get pork loin or chicken breasts for under $2/lb. I grew up on home-grown beef, so we ate it a lot. I need to get a half a cow or something. This mama needs some beef.

Yeah, my beef is mostly limited to hamburger.... actually nearly everything except the chickenbreast originally had a walmart clearance sticker on it, lol.... I go through the meat section and check whenever I go in. I stocked up some when I got my student loan money, so now I can just buy whatever is marked down and rotate it out. Last night we had burger's, fries and salad. Lunch today was samples at Sam's and Heb while we were shopping, lol... dinner tonight is leftovers, and tomorrow my cousins are coming over. I'm putting a big (marked down ) pork roast on the grill. We'll be having some kind of pork.dish with the leftovers this week, and I'll freeze some of the cooked meat too....

Recertified for foodstamps this month, and they more than doubled from $111 to $275!!! I'm not sure if it was because my income dropped some, or my daycare got so much higher, probably a combo of both. I am so happy though

We've been getting our garden started too. We've been getting broccoli and carrots through the winter, and a few peas and sugar snap peas too.

We had lamb chops tonight. I marinated them for about a half hour in olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, salt and pepper. Falafel and dolma on the side. It was such a treat to have lamb - I've been craving it lately and the store finally had some good looking blade chops at a good price.

I am roasting a 16lb turkey that has been in the freezer since Thanksgiving. I figure all the leftover meat and broth will bive me a good start on some more freezer meals. Tonight we are having some turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn. Definate comfort food here!

Friday night we had tuna salad sandwiches. I used 5 cans of tuna, 8 dill pickle spears, 8 boiled eggs, 1/3 an onion, 6 stalks of celery, and the mayo and stuff. I thought for sure we'd have some left the next day, but most of it was gone. Gone, I tell ya, and my kids are GROWING!

Sat. night we had fried chicken 'cause I was beat from making so many dang cookies.

last night we ate Wendy's salads 'cause we were coming back from out of town and we were running late and had to get home to feed the goats and rabbits.

Tonight I'm using the left over fried chicken breasts (3) and making stir fry. I have celery, carrots, cabbage, and cauliflower I really need to use up. I got my case of kelp noodles in today so I'm anxious to try them. They are kinda $$ so I'll make some plain rice or rice noodles for the kids. I sure hope they are good because I'm missing noodles.

Last night we had Thai Noodle soup, and it was especially good since it wasn't the lazy version - I used fresh ginger and garlic. And I left out the chicken since we needed something light after the heavy bolognese on Sunday.

Tonight, we're doing a beef roast - if it's defrosted enough by this afternoon to get it into the crockpot.

I think I'll make a nice big meatloaf tonight. I have 6 pounds of meat thawed--gd beef and pork. My mom filled my cooler again this weekend. :o) They are starting to catch more pigs, so I came home w/2 shoulders, 2 big racks of ribs w/the entire loin still attached, 8 lbs of gd. pork, and 8 lbs of gd. beef. I <3 free meat!

I have 4 heads of cabbage. I need some cabbage inspiration. I need something to go w/the meatloaf. I don't have any carrots, so won't make slaw. Oh, oh, oh! Brainstorm. Duh. I'll make cabbage rolls instead. I was going for easier, but since it's incredibly windy today I can't work in my garden anyway, so I might as well spend more time on supper. I could make enough to freeze some, too.

I think I'll whip up a grain free pizza for lunch, too. I have a bit of thawed sausage in the fridge and plenty of cheese.

I've been absent from this thread for a while, but finally got caught up!

I just took some beef tips out of the freezer to make stew later this week, and also pulled out a ham bone for CP bean soup. For tonight, though, I have no idea. I REALLY need to go to the grocery store. My cupboards are practically bare, which is a rarity here. We may just have take-out sandwiches tonight since DS #1 has basketball practice and I'm still exhausted from working all weekend & last night.

Apparently it was a pork shoulder I put to defrost and not a beef roast. Which actually worked out better - husband did a crockpot porchetta and it was just amazing. He reduced the cooking liquid into a nice sauce and served it over some leftover pasta we had in the fridge - it was fantastic. Definitely a repeat.

For tomorrow, I'm thinking about putting some beans to soak for soup - maybe a 15 bean mix, and we can eat up the last mini loaf of beer bread with it. I suppose we'll chat about it after he finishes putting the baby to bed, and make our plan of attack.

Last night we had left over pork and boxed stuffīng, with carrots and broccoli. Tonight, I'm not sure. My mom will be cooking while ds is at church, I have to miss.for a staff meeting, grrr..... it'll be after 8 when we get home